Steven Robbins here. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Melissa has a common problem dealing with her colleagues and their calendars.

Her office uses a calendar that gets shared over their network. Colleagues let her see their

busy status on their calendars, but they block details,

so she doesn't know where they are when she needs them for something important. She has a

public and private calendar and wants to know how she can get her colleagues to do the same.

Melissa has just discovered one of the hidden truths about productivity.

Sometimes your own productivity depends on your office mates.

Begging them to help doesn't necessarily work.

Going on team-building exercise and catching them on a trust fall.

Doesn't work.

They trust you, but that doesn't mean they want to help you.

Even if you drop them, they don't necessarily want to help.

Of course,

drop them hard enough, and you can induce amnesia and convince them that you're their lifelong pal, then they'll help. Only their memory has a way of coming back at the most

inopportune times. Don't ask how I know this. Your problem is that everyone has a calendar

system that works best for them. But for the team to work really

well, it really requires everyone subordinate their personal style to a common tool. In effect,

you want them to become part of the Borg, only in their real-life workplace. And this time,

resistance isn't futile, at least not for them. People aren't nice. You'll have to persuade them.

You do that by raising the problems to the group and framing the problem as group problems.

Then you let the group choose a solution. Feel free to propose your solution, everyone keep public

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